Marijuana Deals Near You

As such, the interest in legal marijuana is appropriately high in Ohio right now.

Evidence of this appeal can be seen in an event staged last week at Federated Church in Cagrin Falls by an organization called Chagrin Arts.

Simply titled "Marijuana," the forum was described like so: "An officer from the Denver Police Department will present his personal reflections on the effects of the legalization of the sale and use of marijuana in Denver, and a Cleveland Clinic doctor will discuss the use of marijuana from a medical perspective."

Pretty standard stuff in these parts — but apparently not in Chagrin Falls.

The tickets for the address were a pricey $28 a throw, yet here's a look at the attendance, as seen in a report from Action 19 News in the Cleveland area.

The main draw was clearly Nagle, whose LinkedIn page traces his progress through the DPD over the course of more than a quarter-century; he started with the department in 1988.

By 2008, he was a captain and commander of the vice/drug-control bureau. Then, in 2012, he was appointed deputy chief of administration — and the following year, he took over as commander of District 4.

The excerpt from the Action 19 News report features Nagle casually commenting about 4/20 and how thousands of people were "all smoking in public."

But in a separate interview with the station, he offers a sound bite that almost sounds promotional.

"There's no big catastrophe," he says. "The sun's still up. The industry has been going strong out there. Taxes are being collected."

This sort of pitch hasn't convinced everyone in Ohio that it's time to be kind. The most memorable quote in the Action 19 News piece is from business owner Martha Vucsko, who opposes cannabis legalization.

"We should be teaching our kids about health and fitness," she says. "If they are smoking pot all day, they are just going to get hungry and eat more."

Funny stuff — but not as memorable as Nagle's remarks, which suggest that at least one DPD supervisor is capable of putting legal marijuana in perspective.

Michael Roberts has written for Westword since October 1990, serving stints as music editor and media columnist. He currently covers everything from breaking news and politics to sports and stories that defy categorization.

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